Divine-Grade Trait: Shadow Clone with Double Learning!

Tiandou City, Viscount Sky Wind mansion.

This residence was a personal gift from Emperor Xue Ye, located right next to the core area of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

It featured everything from rockeries to flowing water; it was incredibly opulent.

Three days had passed since Xue Yao moved in.

In these three days, he had attended exactly one day of classes at the academy.

After that, he stopped going entirely.

The instructor on the podium would spend every day spouting nonsense about the basics of Martial Souls.

What kind of garbage were they teaching? It was all common knowledge. Things like what a Beast Martial Soul is, what a Tool Martial Soul is, and how to measure Innate Soul Power.

Xue Yao sat below, yawning incessantly.

For someone with the mind of an adult like him, listening to such lectures was a complete waste of life.

He was an adult, after all; he had no time to play house with a bunch of children.

There were no classes in the afternoon. That was how things were on the Douluo Continent; to the noble masters of the Spirit Masters, practical combat was far more important than theory. This was a world that had spent tens of thousands of years learning only how to fight.

Xue Yao changed into casual clothes. He strolled over to the academy's Royal Library.

This place was extraordinary. It was one of the largest repositories of books in the Heaven Dou Empire, spanning five floors in total.

Ordinary students, even those of noble birth, could at most wander around the first and second floors.

But Xue Yao held special privileges.

Clutching the purple-gold card personally given to him by the Chief Commissioner Meng Shenji, he passed through without obstruction and went straight to the fifth floor.

This place was filled with core theories that were never shared with outsiders, as well as top-secret dossiers of the royal family.

The top floor was deathly quiet. There wasn't even a shadow of a person. The air held only the faint scent of ink.

Xue Yao found a seat by the window.

He walked to the bookshelves, grabbed a large stack of thick, ancient parchment volumes, and dumped them all onto the wide desk.

High-Level Soul Beast Age Determination, Deep Logic of Martial Soul Mutation, Wind Attribute Conflict and Fusion...

They were all substantial, yet undeniably obscure and difficult to understand.

Xue Yao opened a copy of Deep Logic of Martial Soul Mutation and began to read it word for word.

After about half an hour.

Xue Yao felt his eyes growing sore. Reading this archaic text was exhausting.

He shifted his intent.

A golden light flashed. The Little Griffin flapped its wings and flew out.

It landed steadily on the desk.

The little guy must have been stifled inside his body. Once out, it looked left and right.

Finally, it leaned over to a spread-open Soul Beast Illustrated Handbook.

Staring with those sharp eagle eyes, it looked at the pages as if it actually understood them.

Xue Yao was amused.

"You're a Martial Soul, can you even read?"

He reached out and rubbed the Little Griffin's fluffy head. It felt exceptionally soft.

The sky gradually darkened.

Xue Yao stretched his back. He decided to call it a day.

"Come back."

He called out softly.

The Little Griffin turned into a streak of light and dove straight back into his body.

The next second.

Xue Yao froze completely.

His eyes widened abruptly. A "buzz" echoed in his brain.

An incredibly clear set of memories suddenly appeared in his mind out of thin air!

Those memories were not of the Martial Soul mutation he had just been reading, but the contents of the Soul Beast Illustrated Handbook!

From page seven to page twelve. The meridian diagrams of the Gale Demon Wolf drawn there, along with the dense annotations on the side.

Xue Yao stood stunned in place. It took him a long time to come back to his senses.

He swallowed hard.

He looked down at the handbook that the Little Griffin had opened.

The page number was resting exactly on page twelve.

Could it be...

To verify the guess in his heart, Xue Yao took a deep breath.

He summoned the Little Griffin once again.

This time, he deliberately took a copy of the Compendium of Rare Ores that he had never even touched before.

He opened the book and pushed it directly in front of the Little Griffin.

"Look."

Xue Yao pointed at the page and issued the command.

The Little Griffin tilted its head. It obediently stared at the page, studying it earnestly for two minutes.

"Return."

With a flash of light, the martial soul entered his body.

BOOM!

A brand-new memory surged into his mind.

The origins, characteristics, and melting points of three types of rare ores were imprinted in Xue Yao's mind, word for word.

"Holy crap."

The usually composed Xue Yao couldn't help but curse.

His heart was pounding rapidly. The blood in his entire body was boiling.

This wasn't just some external beast martial soul.

This was practically the Shadow Clone technique from Naruto!

The main body and the clone could work simultaneously. Once the clone was dismissed, the experience and memories would perfectly merge back into the main body!

A god-tier trait!

This was definitely a god-tier hidden mechanism that could only be triggered by an external martial soul!

After understanding this mechanism, Xue Yao's eyes lit up completely.

This meant he possessed double the learning efficiency!

He would read one book, and the Little Griffin would read another.

Moreover, the Little Griffin's memory was even more monstrous than his own. After all, it was a mythical creature.

When this little guy read, it didn't need to go word by word. It could memorize almost everything with a single glance—a true photographic memory.

It was like plugging an external hard drive into a computer; it scanned the data and saved it instantly.

"Come on! We have to devour as many books on this floor as possible today!"

Xue Yao was suddenly full of energy.

The fatigue from just moments ago had vanished into thin air.

He covered the desk with books.

He picked up a copy of Deconstruction of Soul Power Execution Trajectories and began reading rapidly.

Beside him, the Little Griffin was assigned to read another massive tome.

One man and one bird immediately activated a frantic "dual-core processing" mode.

The grand hall was deathly quiet, save for the rustling sound of pages turning rapidly.

Half an hour later.

Xue Yao rubbed his temples. With a thought, he recalled the Little Griffin into his body.

A massive stream of knowledge instantly flooded his mind.

He closed his eyes, digesting the information for a few seconds. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward wildly.

It felt amazing.

This sensation of knowledge being poured into his brain at double speed was simply addictive.

This is what it means to cheat.

Books are the ladder of human progress; at any time, reading more is never a mistake.

Unknowingly, the sky outside had turned completely dark.

Xue Yao closed the final book and let out a long sigh of relief.

In just one afternoon and half an evening, he had managed to devour theoretical books that would take an ordinary soul master half a year to comprehend.

And it was all rote memorization, fully integrated and understood. No fluff whatsoever.

He stood up and returned all the thick ancient texts to their original places on the shelves.

As he walked out of the library, the night breeze blew against his face, feeling cool and refreshing.

Xue Yao extended his right hand.

In his palm, a cluster of cyan wind elemental energy danced joyfully.

This element was incredibly pure, without a single trace of impurity.

Following his will, it shifted from a sphere into sharp wind blades and back again.

This was a small experiment he had conducted based on the attribute control theory he learned tonight.

Not only did he succeed, but it felt incredibly natural, almost as if it were a part of his own body.

Indeed, knowledge is power.

With such a monstrous "Shadow Clone" learning method, he was now completely invincible when it came to theory.

He possessed absolute confidence.

In the shortest time possible, he would forge a perfect evolutionary path belonging solely to the Royal Griffin.